Grassroots move by music festival goers on pill testing, advocates next target Groovin’ The Moo

A grassroots movement has begun among music festival fans as authorities around the country dither over pill-testing.

On Saturday, the Spilt Music in Canberra showed that of the 25,000 who attended, many brought their own basic pill-testing kits, the ABC reported.

Spilt Music was to have been the first festival in the country to officially hold the tests, with the ACT Government so far the only one to green-light them

But the tests were halted last month. Depending on whom you spoke to, either test advocates had not got proper documents to promoter Kick Entertainment in time, or ACT Liberal politicians used the fact Spilt Music was staged on Commonwealth land and got them pulled.

In any case, patrons seemed to be increasingly aware that the pills they were taking were not necessarily what they bought, and that they needed to take their own precautions.

Research done in UK festivals, presented this month in Australia for the first time, also reflected similar concerns. One in five offering their stash for examination, found them mixed with anti-malarial tablets, household cleaner, paracetamol and concrete.

Professor Fiona Measham, Professor of Criminology in the School of Applied Social Sciences at Durham University was speaking at the APSAD Scientific Alcohol and Other Drugs Conference in Melbourne.

She began offering pill testing at UK festivals last year through her charity The Loop.

Tests at Secret Garden showed that hospitalisations dropped from 19 to one.

Of those whose pills were found to be toxic, a fifth abandoned them. Two in five said they would reduce the number of drugs they took.

For 90% of attendees, it was the first time they discussed their drug use with a service, and some asked for referrals to a drug service.

Professor Fiona Measham said, “Drug safety testing can play a part in addressing these challenges.

“It’s not just about festivals, it’s not just about nightclubs, it’s about how we can identify contaminants along the whole illegal drug chain in order to reduce harm, hospitalisations and hopefully, even deaths.”

While lamenting the Spilt Music opportunity as a “lost” one, drug advocates are already looking at introducing tests at the Canberra leg of Groovin’ The Moo in May.

Leading pill-testing advocate and emergency department medico Dr David Caldicott of the STA-SAFE consortium said that Groovin’ would not be an issue as it would be on ACT-administered land.

But he also told the Canberra Times, “We have no intention of waiting for Groovin the Moo, we are looking at alternatives across Australia and the Territory before that.

“But this remains the only jurisdiction that has been bold enough to embrace pill testing.”

Dr Caldicott lashed out at the Liberal members’ refusal to hold discussions with them and air their concerns.

He told the paper, “One of the big problems is politicians who know nothing about the field of health making decisions about something they don’t want to happen without consultation and doing everything in their power to try to stop it happening.

“It is clear that our opponents prefer to be ignorant about what is going on.”

Spilt Music went ahead without dramas, as fans sweltered in 30-degree heat while slam-dancing to Lorde, Remi, Sampa the Great, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Dune Rats and Tash Sultana.

There were only three arrests – one for alleged assault, and the other two for being drunk and disorderly.

A report commissioned by Kicks Entertainment estimated the festival injected $25 million into the ACT’s economy during its two-year history in Canberra.